Device for absorbing thermal energy from the surrounding environment and using same (generator)

ABSTRACT

Existing turbine energy generators currently use temperature difference to do work. To operate, they require a boiler, a condenser that usually operates at normal temperatures, a turbine, and a pump for increasing the fluid pressure, said generators mostly using water as a cooling medium. The invention is based on lowering the temperature of the condenser, such that the boiler can operate under normal operating conditions. In order to do this, 1) a cooling medium having a low boiling temperature (below 0) is used instead of water; 2) the temperature of the condenser—which is well insulated—is lowered to said temperature by using a normal secondary cooling cycle between the evaporator and the condenser, the cooling cycle transferring the excess heat from the condenser to the evaporator without the need for external cooling—this cycle uses a second cooling medium having a temperature slightly below that of the first cooling medium.

PRIOR ART

1. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Refrigeration and air conditioning work on increasing gas pressure toturn it into a liquid when it loses some heat—that heat comes mostlyfrom gas compression process—to the outside air and that liquid goesthrough expansion valve allows the liquid to become cold gas again togain heat from surrounding—ex. inside the room.

Problem or Deficiency in the Prior Art

The global warming problem roiling the world, also energy consumption isincreasing every day and in turn more search for clean, renewable energyis needed.

While refrigeration and air conditioning especially important in Arabiccountries, lacking the technology to efficiently cooling with hightemperatures over 50 degrees Celsius, also it consumes a lot ofelectricity and energy and heating the surrounding weather plus Use someharmful compounds (Freon) to the ozone layer.

On the other hand might be acceptable logically burning wood to heat theair or getting warmer or use the fireplace for heating or boiler orusing heat to generate electricity through turbines Etc but it is alittle weird energy use for cooling air.

New in the Subject Invention

Device design converts air heat to kinetic energy to cool air at he sametime can be used to produce energy.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The turbine power plant—Rankin power plant—composed of boiler convertswater into steam—point 3.

That steam goes to the turbine which coverts heat energy to kineticenergy and the pressurized steam become water vapor with low pressureand temperature—point 4.

That vapor enters the condenser it turns into liquid after losing someof its heat—1 point.

The liquid water goes to the pump to raise its pressure before it entersthe boiler again—point 2.

In order to make the boiler turns to evaporator i.e. to absorb ambientheat we must make changes

1. use a low boiling point cooling medium

2. decrease the condenser temperature a little below the boiling pointof the cooling medium

Use a low temperature cooling medium has too many choices but I willpick two of them R-134a and R-22, because they are easy to find and theabundance of information about them.

But I think that (nitrogen/air) system would be more suitable forcommercial use and eco friendly.

To reduce the temperature of the condenser, we must at first thermallyisolate the condenser body from surrounding

Secondly by using artificial cooling cycle to absorb the condenser heatand transfer that heat to the evaporator using second cooling mediumwith boiling point slightly lower than the first one

Mode of Action

The cooling medium enters from point 1 at room temperature or higher tothe turbine B to convert some of its heat energy to kinetic energy so itwill have less temperature and pressure.

The control valve A controls cooling medium quantity entering theturbine B or shut it down completely (thermally insulate the turbine ispreferred) after that the cooling medium enters the insulated pipeC—point 2—preferably using vacuum insulation, after that it enters thecondensation reservoir D (which is heat exchanger with reservoir) whichis very well thermally insulated so that cooling medium condensed at thebottom and sucked by the pump E.

At top of the condensation reservoir D there is a second evaporator Efor secondary cooling cycle where working with other cooling medium hasboiling point less than that of the main cooling medium.

The compressor L sucks the second cooling medium—point 5—to and compressit to the heat exchanger J—point 6—where it loses extra heat to the mainevaporator K (or separate part from it) then it turns to liquid—point7—then it loses its pressure in the expansion valve G—point 8—and itstemperature lowered inside the second evaporator E so the main coolingmedium well start to condense inside the condensation reservoir D andthe main cooling medium which exits from the condenser—point 3—to pump Hand to the evaporator core K—point 4—point where it absorbs the heatfrom the surrounding.

on this device second cooling cycle should be thermally insulated so thesurrounding heat loss/gain don't affect the device balance usingvariable compression type compressor (can over various pressure) isproffered so it will not waste the energy produced by the turbine andthe turbine B body should be insulated.

The device will need to controllers to organize components speed so thecompressor L and the pump H has to match the speed of the turbine B(mechanical or electronic controller)

Device Starting

To start this device the compressor L needs to start for enough time tostart the main cooling medium condensation in the condensation reservoirD

But we can make the device runs automatically by installing check valveon the tube between the turbine B and condensation reservoir D andinstalling another solenoid valve after the pump H (valve opens andcloses only) closes when the main valve A closes so some of the coolingmedium will still liquid or at high pressure inside the condensationreservoir D.

when the valves opened the pressure difference starts the turbine B andthus the entire device starts automatically

Calculations

Making this calculations here for this device to make sure it will workor not and because the device based only on paper I will assume certainassumptions realistically accepted—

I: the gas flow rate in any part of the machine is constant and equal to1 kg/s (run cluster rate equations)

II: the main cooling cycle is R-134a (1-4 point) while secondary coolingcycle is R-22 (5-8)

III: The two cycles are ideal and that means the compressor and pump andturbine and the expansion valve are isentropic while the heat exchangers(evaporator) isobaric

IV: at point 1—P=5 bar And T=25 C (room temperature and relativelyacceptable pressure for medium sized pump)

V: at point 2—P=1 bar (Based on the turbine efficiency=15% a valuesuitable for the small turbine I will use it)

VI: Temperature at point 5—equal to the temperature at point 2—and thetemperature at point 8—approximately equals point 3—temperature.

VII: at point 6—P=1.5 bar and at point 8—P=1 bar (I got this hypothesisafter trying a number of different pressures upon calculations)

VIII: at point 7—T=−35 (that is the same temperature that R-22 condensesat a pressure 1.5 bar)

In order to be sure the device will work (mathematically) we have tofind the difference between the workout resulting from turbine B andwork-in exploited by the pump H and the compressor L as we must alsomake sure that the amount of heat absorbed from the second cycle at thecondensation reservoir D is less than heat emitted from that cycle atthe main evaporator K.

But first we have to calculate the values of the enthalpy h, entropy s,pressure P and temperature T at every point of the eight points.

By reviewing the previous assumptions and use of siteHttp://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/fluid/ for tables of thermodynamicsfor some cooling media types (including R-134a and R-22)

Entropy Enthalpy Pressure Temperature Cooling Notes S J/g · k h kJ/kg Pbar T Point medium Values it underlined 1.75 416.4 5   25 1 R-134a inbold assumed 1.75 383.68 1   −25 2 directly while the 0.7955 148.16 1−40 3 values in bold with 0.7955 148.44 5 39.9 4 no line underneath a1.866 397.45 1 −25  5 R-22 result assume that 1.866 407.03 1.5 −8 6 thecycles are ideal, 0.84588 160.37 1.5 −35  7 other values from 0.84588153.7 1   −41  8 calculations on the site http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/fluid

Workout from turbine Wt

w _(t) =m(h ₁ −h ₂)=32.72 kJ/s

Where m is mass flow rate and has assumed to be 1 kg/s

The work needed for pump w_(pump) And the compressor w_(comp)

w _(pump) =m(h ₃ −h ₄)=0.28 kJ/s

w _(comp) =m(h ₅ −h ₆)=−9.58 kJ/s

Net work from the device W

W=w _(t) +w _(comp) +w _(pump)=22.86 kJ/s

Which means that this device generates surplus energy of about twothirds of the power generated by the turbine.

But there is still two things to check about—

1. Is the second cooling cycle absorbs enough heat to condense the maincooling medium? In the equations does h2−h3 Equals numerically (almost)h5−h8?

h2−h3=235.52 kJ/kg

h8−h5=−243.75 kJ/kg

This outcome confirms that the second cooling cycle will likely able tocondense the main cooling medium.

2. Is the main evaporator can absorb heat from the second cooling cycle?and how much heat it will absorb from surrounding after that? to answerwe will compare between h4−h1 And h6−h7

h4−h1=−267.96 kJ/kg

h6−h7=246.66 kJ/kg

And be the difference −21.3 kJ/kg (of course near the number of network) are absorbed from the surrounding and is a good number of courseconsidering the temperature difference and the pressure relatively few.

Method of Exploitation

Can be used for cooling or air conditioning without the need for anexternal power source.

Can be used as a source of electricity

Can be used as a drive or motor

Could be exploited to reduce the moisture in the air or in waterproduction to intensify water vapor in the air.

Can be used in this previous stuff individually or collectively

EXPLAINING THE DRAWING BOARDS

Illustration a

1-8: points of measure—or calculate—pressure and temperature andenthalpy

A: Control valve in the cooling medium quantity

B: Turbine

C: Thermally insulated pipes

D: condensation reservoir (thermally isolated)

E: A second evaporator

F: Non-insulated pipes

G: Expansion valve

H: Pump

J: Heat exchanger (another condenser linked to the main evaporator)

K: The main evaporator

L: Compressor

Illustration b

1-8: points of measure—or calculate—pressure and temperature andenthalpy

106: Control valve in the cooling medium quantity

101: Thermally insulated turbine

102: condensation reservoir heat exchanger (thermally isolated)

107: A second evaporator (heat exchanger) thermally insulated

108: Expansion valve thermally insulated

104: Pump

105: The main evaporator

103: Compressor

1. A device absorbs ambient heat energy and converts it to kinetic orelectrical energy composed of Heat exchanger J, evaporator K, turbine Bconnected to check valve (not illustrated), condensation reservoir Dwith reservoir (not illustrated) and pump H attached with solenoid valve(not illustrated) uses primary cooling medium and refrigeration cyclebetween the Heat exchanger J and the condensation reservoir D usingsecondary cooling medium with boiling point slightly less than theprimary one.
 2. Device as in the first item have two cooling mediums topower a turbine could start automatically.
 3. Device as in the firstitem have thermal insulation for the turbine B, the condensationreservoir D, the refrigeration cycle and the tubes between them. 4.Device as in the first item have simple refrigeration cycle to transferthe wasted heat from the condenser to the evaporator.
 5. Device as inthe first item have reservoir and valve after the pump H closesautomatically when the device shuts down and check valve after theturbine B to keep reasonable amount of the cooling medium to help thedevice auto start mechanism